


Ceremony

by zauberer_sirin



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-14
Updated: 2010-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-14 17:32:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/151732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zauberer_sirin/pseuds/zauberer_sirin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Mei gets it: this is a ritual. She still doesn't like, though.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Ceremony

**ceremony**

The preparatives for the ceremony warranted that she should wash her hands. They placed the basin by her feet and she had to kneel and roll her sleeves and wash her hands, pouring water with one hand to the other as if measuring, five times.

It's symbolic, she knew this.

She knew it was not meant to humiliate her in any way, it was just tradition. It meant: the new Emperor was something akin to a god, was the closest to a god the people had and to welcome him one had to shed the sins and impurities of body and heart before the heavy, gilded gates to the throne room could be opened. It's a ritual, Mei knew this. She also knew that she had little idea of how a god would be like but definitely he would be nothing like Ling Yao. Of this she was certain.

So that's why she went trough the chore with a vaguely-concealed expression on her face, lips pressed together in a disdainful smirk. If the aids watching her - making sure she cleansed herself before granting access to the Emperor - noticed this they didn't say a word. The water seemed sharply cold: the colder the water the better to get rid of the sins, impurities, that sort of nonsense, she guessed. Maybe she was too young to appreciate tradition, she reflected, or maybe she just thought it was preposterous to go through all this pomp for that guy.

`Have you been informed of the protocol?´ The aid asked her as he handed Mei a small white towel to dry her hands.

`Yes, yes.´

Let's get this over with, she was thinking. She'd been adequately informed of the proceedings, of course. Now the gates would open and she would stand in line with the rest of the people, carefully chosen, to greet the new Emperor in his first day of rule. She would have to wait until, with a light wave of his hand, the Emperor called her towards him and then Mei would walk up to the throne and then, without _daring_ to look at the Emperor, she would kneel, right knee to floor first, and slowly bow to him.

How she was going to do this without breaking into a fit, Mei did not know.

The thing that surprised her first was how few people there were in the hall. The doors opened and Mei glimpsed what seemed to be quite a private ceremony. Before her were four or five people, statesmen, advisors, family, and only five or so more standing to the sides of the room; the Emperor himself was only accompanied, at a distance, by that guard of his, Lan Fan and when Mei and her locked eyes for a moment she could feel a surge of heat on her cheeks and she could tell that the bodyguard, this girl, was thinking the same. History is a vice hard to give up. Maybe they were all on the same side, and maybe that Emperor brat had done some good things, and maybe this Mei kept quite far away in the back of her mind because... well, it was rather embarrassing - he was her friend after all but Mei thought this was a bit too much. He was a Yao, after all, she could stomach him being Emperor, but they didn't need to make such a big fuss out of it, did they. She rolled her eyes. Why were so few people here? It made her feel exposed. If they were going to have a ceremony at least they could have had a huge one, with thousands of idiots bowing to the guy so that nobody would noticed if Mei did it half-assedly or stuck her tongue at His Highness.

She focused on watching closely on how those before her in the line were doing. Everything executed so graceful. The Emperor nodded quietly at each person approaching him and, if you didn't know Ling, you would have mistaken him for someone with poise, dignity. Mei would be impressed it she wasn't so creeped out.

  
If she was going to do this she was going to do it _beautifully_. She was going to be the bigger man, so to speak. If Chan was to bow to Yao at least Mei would dazzle everybody with her pride and humility and grandeur, her propriety and nobility. Elegance, refinement, she was going to choke Ling with that. She was going to perform a bow that would go down in history as exquisite. So much that people would acclaim her and demand that she was declared Emperor - er, Empress - and not Ling.

She caught the signal and held her breath. She walked up until she reached the throne, just in time to remember she shouldn't look directly at the Emperor. Just as well, that idiotic face of his would probably distracted her. First the kneeling. Right knee down, left knee up and her arm resting on it, her hand making a graceful arch. For a moment she didn't know what to do with her right hand - WHY HADN'T ANYONE TOLD HER WHAT TO DO WITH HER RIGHT HAND? - so she improvised (she was that smart, people, no need for applause, now, now) and she curled her fingers into a loose fist proper but not menacing and kept her arm pressed against her side, her figure all formality. Perfect. Now the hard part. Bowing her head. Bowing to Ling Yao on his Coronation. She could do this. She refused to catch glimpse of his gold-threaded clothes - _lame_ \- and how he was girded with an emperor sash. She just had to do this.

This was it.

Mei bowed.

And then something happened. Something that wasn't in the grand plans for a standard coronation ceremony.

The Emperor laughed.

In fact he laughed so hard that the sound filled the room and echoed and everybody froze on their positions and looked at each other, alarmed, but too shocked to do anything. Mei almost didn't dare lift her head and when she did the first thing she saw was Ling's maniac expression and how his hands were holding his stomach because he was laughing so hard. No one knew what to do. Expectant, they started looking at Mei and Mei blushed. She, too, looked around her as if trying to find the answer, the explanation, for this madness. People started whispering.

`Sorry, sorry,´ he waved. He shook his head and stopped the whispers with a _hear-hear_ kind of gesture.

He got up from the throne - Lan Fan tensed and took two steps towards him, wary at what might happen after this breach of protocol - and everybody took a couple of steps back, as if making room for the Emperor. He walked down from the dais and towards Mei.

She wondered what she had done wrong; sure, she thought the whole business silly but she had really tried to do the kneeling-and-bowing thing perfectly.

`No, sorry, get up, get up,´ Ling told her, covering his mouth because he was still laughing riotously.

Mei obeyed and started getting up - and Ling helped her up, grabbing her gently by the elbow. Touching subjects is a notorious no-no on a coronation ceremony and Mei swore she could hear someone gasp.

`Watching you bow was just too funny,´ he explained, looking at Mei head to toe and chuckling. `It's just... too ridiculous.´

`Sorry...´ Mei tried to apologize - for what, exactly, she did not know, but she was pretty sure she was going down in history as the stupid teenager that ruined Emperor Ling Yao's coronation. It was bound to become a family curse. People would repeat the history and future generations would never know that it was not Mei's fault, it was just that Emperor Ling Yao was crazy and also an idiot.

Then Ling looked at her. He turned serious all of the sudden. His expression was severe and soft at the same time. Mei hated to admit this but for a moment he looked like an emperor.

`No, no,´ he said and his voice was clear but also private, as if he wanted to say something to the whole world but as if having a private conversation with her. And then he put his hand on top of Mei's head quietly. He smiled: `You don't bow.´

He ruffled her hair as if she were a little girl and Mei forgot where she was and what this day meant and she got away from the Emperor's grasp and complained and insulted him and tried to bodily harmed him (now there was a gasp, no doubt, and Mei was sure it was Lan Fan's) and that was the coronation ruined.

Ling walked back to his seat on the throne, laughter like a roar, still filling the morning air.

`Don't go anywhere, Chan,´ he said as soon as he was seated. `This ceremony is a bore and damn if I'm going to go through it alone.´

He said this and he slouched on the throne, his legs open and in an all-around un-Emperor-like posture. On second thought Mei was sure Ling hadn't need her help to ruin his own Coronation. So maybe history would be kind on her and her clan after all.

She buffed and huffed and sighed and took her place besides the Emperor, among aids and advisors, friends, bodyguards, _family_.


End file.
